About the Series ...

This
article is a member of the series Introduction
to MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. The series is designed to
provide hands-on application of the fundamentals of MS SQL Server 2000
Analysis Services, with each installment progressively adding features and
techniques designed to meet specific real-world needs. For more information on
the series, as well as the hardware / software requirements to prepare for
the exercises we will undertake, please see my initial article, Creating Our First Cube.

Note: Service Pack 3 updates are assumed for MSSQL Server 2000, MSSQL
Server 2000 Analysis Services, and the related Books Online
and Samples. Images are from a Windows 2003 Server
environment, upon which I have also implemented MS Office 2003, but the
steps performed in the articles, together with the views that result, will be
quite similar within any environment that supports MSSQL Server 2000 and MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services ("Analysis
Services" or "MSAS"). The same is generally true,
except where differences are specifically noted, when MS Office 2000 and
above are used in the environment, in cases where MS Office components
are presented in the article.

Overview

We have touched upon partitions
over the life of the Introduction
to MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services series, as well as within other series at Database Journal. We
recently discussed partitioning more specifically within our article Basic
Storage Design, within which we introduced the Storage Design Wizard.
The Storage Design Wizard, as we discovered, enables us to manage aggregations
on a partition-by-partition basis when working with a multi-partitioned cube.
We noted that, if a cube we are optimizing through the use of the Storage
Design Wizard contains multiple partitions, we are forced to select a
partition from the outset, as we can only design storage for a single partition
at a time.

In
this article, we will introduce the MSAS Partition Wizard, whose role is
to enable us to create and modify partitions to optimize the query performance
of our cubes. We will first discuss partitioning as a concept, within the
context of MSAS cubes, and then we will perform a hands-on exercise where we
partition a copy of the Budget cube, one of the sample cubes that
accompany the installation of MSAS. Our objective in this article is an overview
of the wizard itself; later articles will focus on detailed partitioning
strategy and techniques.

Within our exploration of
the Partition Wizard, we will accomplish the following:

Create copy of
the Budget sample cube for use in our practice exercise;

Use the Partition
Wizard, to create partitions for our practice cube;

Examine the
options that are available to us, as we proceed through the guided steps of the
Partition Wizard.